Cleversafe's new Elevate Partner Program is geared toward MSPs, Vars, GSIs and OEMs and will arm them with the latest information on big data cloud technology to help them deliver scalable and secure solutions to their customers.

The benefits of the cloud are heavily touted by cloud providers and the various types of channel partners with which they work. But a number of stumbling blocks still remain. Channel partners outlined for CRN some of the objectives they hear most often.

Top Amazon execs speaking at AWS Summit 2013 tell attendees that as the company moves from cloud servers, storage and databases to include networking, data warehousing and application services, AWS' full capabilities are only now coming into focus while its competitors are scrambling to keep up.

Moving to the cloud forces channel partners to apply a new layer of creativity to their business models. CRN taps the minds of a solution provider that has found success in this space, and is willing to share some of the insights they learned along the way.